How to harvest reader love to sell books 😎

Pls no woodchipper this time.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

​ Hey, Wouldn't it be great if you had some magic fairy dust to sprinkle on your ads which will make them more attractive to new readers? Duh, of course it would! I'm going to show you how to do just that, and how to help protect those ads from nasty comments, as well as any sniping from jealous competitors which is part of the territory as you get successful… or as an ad really takes off. If you missed the first six episodes of this series on Facebook Ads, can catch up at the Email Archive. Click on "Mad Ads" and then scroll down to Facebook, and you are set. Now let's talk about fans and social proof. Building A Reader Army Long-time subscribers will know that one of my favorite marketing approaches is to create engagement with readers… which in turn generates the kind of passionate fans who do the selling for you. I have written an entire book about this process – Strangers to Superfans – but the logic can be explained very quickly: the most convincing salesperson in the world is a fellow reader. You know when someone presses a book into your hands and says, "you must read this book"? That's what you want happening for your books because it is the most convincing sales pitch going. One of the big challenges with marketing in today's world – along with simply cutting through the noise – is navigating the (undoubtedly warranted) cynicism of the average customer. People have been subjected to such an incredible number of many sales messages in their lives that they start blanking them out, or just adopting a position of (again, most likely well-earned) suspicion towards any claim made. That's one of the reasons why influencers have become so important – big brands can use them to get in under the radar, borrowing the influencer's credibility as well as their audience. Influencer backing is just one form of social proof, as is that aforementioned approval from friends, along with endorsement from a recognized expert, praise on social media, or the wisdom of the crowd – i.e. from hundreds or thousands of reviews. And this social proof is the magic fairy dust that you need to sprinkle on your ads. Multiplying Social Proof One common piece of Facebook advice I see is to exclude existing purchasers from your ads. The thinking goes as follows. It's a fair assumption that most of the people who have Liked your page or who signed up to your mailing list have read the cheap/free Book 1 in your main series. And if that's the case, then advertising to all these people is a waste of money, and you should nudge the system into showing your ad for that cheap or free series opener to new readers, fresh eyeballs, and so on. I understand the argument, but I disagree. Because existing readers can still give you something incredibly valuable: social proof. Existing readers will like, share, and comment on your ad – which essentially functions like any other post on Facebook. The most engaged readers will rave about your series, and even answer questions from your target audience before you can get to them. Having a bunch of readers show their love for your books underneath your ads is incredibly powerful, and can really help close the sale for you, after your ad graphic/discount/sales copy draws them in and piques their interest. In fact, this social proof is so incredibly valuable that it can be worth deliberately cultivating it, and indeed multiplying it. You should be careful here because Facebook expressly forbids what they call "engagement bait" – which is where you explicitly ask for likes, comments, or shares in your ad text or ad graphic. You might see this stuff routinely on Facebook – I certainly do – but I recommend avoiding it completely as if Facebook detects this it can throttle the reach of your post and/or reject the ad. Instead, create the conditions for this to happen organically. The simplest way to do this is as follows: Don't exclude any existing readers from your ads. Make sure all your ads are pointing at the same post on Facebook. The second step here allows you to concentrate social proof in one place – one "super" ad, which all the other ads you are running can point towards. Doing this kind of mirroring is quite straightforward. Simply duplicate the ad in Facebook, and then point the new ad at the old one. You do this by selecting "Use existing post" in the ad creation interface instead of "Create Ad" – BTW this is in the "Ad Setup" section at the Ad level, i.e. the third stage of Facebook ad creation, which I broke down for you in this video guide. The screenshot below will show you which part of the ad creation interface I'm referring to. ​ Using this simple strategy, you can have all your social proof gathered in one place, instead of scattered across multiple ads. You can make new campaigns later on, and keep pointing them back to this "super" ad, layering on more and more social proof over time. The image above is from a campaign I'm running right now using this approach to boost my non-fiction mailing list (i.e. this one), but it's even more effective for selling books rather than generating sign-ups - especially fiction, in case anyone is wondering. Friends First You have probably heard marketers talk about warm and cold audiences. A warm audience is one that is predisposed to your product and might only need some slight nudging to purchase (or just simply to know that the next book in the series is now out). A cold audience is one that needs a lot more wining and dining, like a reader who has never heard of you. Warm audiences are more inclined to purchase, like, share, and comment – obviously. Whereas if you are going to get a nasty response to your ad campaign, it's almost certainly going to come from a cold audience. Sometimes we can get into a negative place about our books, which can make us gun-shy when it comes to selling them. (Even cynical old marketing pros can feel this way; being a writer is weird!). We can be especially sensitive around the time of a new release, for all sorts of reasons. Which is why it can be useful to send your new book baby out into the world wearing a suit of armor fashioned from social proof. You know the way authors send out ARCs to existing readers so as to get loads of reviews on launch day? Well, you can kinda do the same thing with your Facebook Ads. Instead of showing your ad to cold audiences first, you can restrict it to those warmer, friendlier audiences of existing readers – e.g. your Facebook followers and your mailing list subscribers – and then when it has attracted loads of Likes and comments from your happy readers, then you can send it out into the world to beat the bushes for new customers. I will talk about Custom Audiences in more detail in a future email, but your Page Likes and your mailing list are two such examples of Custom Audiences, and you can advertise to them in the same way that you advertise to a more general audience, tapping into social proof to sway new readers. More advanced users can even put aside a small amount of budget to run a specific Engagement campaign to these Custom Audiences (rather than a regular Traffic campaign), which will tell Facebook to specifically seek out those loyal readers of yours who are more likely to engage with your ads – i.e. Like, comment, and share – as opposed to those most likely to click on your ad. And then once your ad has happily hoovered up all this social proof, you can start your regular Traffic campaign, pointing all those new ads at that older "super" ad which has attracted all that reader love. (Note: you can exclude existing fans at this stage if you wish, but I see enough value in additional social proof trickling in that I usually don't bother.) This method works with ad posts and regular posts – so you can actually put something publicly on your Facebook Page in the normal way, and then put a little money behind that post to ensure it reaches as many of your existing followers as possible (with a regular Engagement campaign or an Engagement Boost if you prefer), before turning that Page post into an ad a day or three later – whenever you feel you have attracted enough social proof. From that point on, you can run as many campaigns as you like pointing back at this original ad or Page post, and all its lovely reader comments. Some things to keep in mind: If you make any changes at the "ad" level, you will lose all that lovely social proof. So, any changes to things in that third stage of ad creation, i.e. the ad text, the ad image, the destination URL, and so on. You should be able to change things at the campaign/ad set level without issue – i.e. things like the targeting, schedule, placements, and budget. You might not be able to gather all your social proof in one place. If you are sending readers direct to Amazon, and are advertising in multiple countries with their own Kindle Stores, then you will have to split things up by territory. There's no neat solution here (Facebook can be funny about redirects, and sending people to your site instead can be less effective). Although note this isn't an issue for newsletter boosting campaigns like I'm running above – you will be sending all readers to the same sign-up page. Sometimes Facebook can glitch a little, he says with considerable understatement. If you can't see the ad you wish to point everything at from the pop-up menu, just wait a little, especially if it's newer page post or ad which hasn't gone live yet. You can leave your new campaign in draft until the ship rights itself. This is important: these days, when you copy an ad Facebook will tell you that it will copy all social proof onto your new campaign. This works sometimes, but it fails just as often in my experience – and you won't know until it's too late. Use the manual method above and you can guarantee that all your precious social proof will gather in one place, underneath all your ads. Block, Delete, Hide? Even with all the social proof in the world, it's not all moonbeams and corndogs. You can still attract trolls, jealous types, or those curious people who seem to be mad at every single ad appearing in their feed on Facebook. One wonders if these people start shouting at bottles of perfume when flicking through a magazine, but I digress. First, don't take it personally. It's never really about you or your book, even if that's the stated target of their ire. Besides, this angry person is clearly not your target reader so their opinion is irrelevant (no matter how hurtfully it might be expressed). Second, engaging with such people is rarely a good idea. Third, rather than deleting (or blocking), the most subtle way to handle such negativity is simply to click the Hide button. The person in question won't know that their comment is hidden as it will still be visible to them and their Facebook friends… but to no one else. It's like a secret mute button – a no fuss, no drama way of handling these situations. To Infinity And Beyond Over time, tapping into social proof in this way becomes something of a feedback loop. Your winning ads drive a spike in sales which leads to more word of mouth, reviews, and newsletter sign-ups – layering more social proof on your books which you can also tap into when making your next ad campaign. One which will be even more attractive to new readers as a result, driving a bigger spike of sales, which then-- well, you get the idea. Don't worry if any of the above steps were confusing. I'm planning a video on this exact topic to walk you through it via a screenshare. ​Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get a ping when it drops. Dave P.S. Writing music this week is One Life Stand by Hot Chip. Broomfield Business Park, Malahide, Co. Dublin K36 AT04 ​Unsubscribe | Update your profile​